


Nights Out and Nostalgia

by MeredithBrody



Series: The Romulan War [5]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-24
Packaged: 2018-01-13 15:04:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1230892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the ships now commanded by Veronica Fletcher and Trip Tucker are both in spacedock at the same time it's enough to convince Jon and Erika they need a night out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nights Out and Nostalgia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mylittleredgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylittleredgirl/gifts), [startrekslut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekslut/gifts).



> This came from me appealing on Tumblr for a fluffy writing idea. The wonderful mylittleredgirl replied with most of the idea for this oneshot. Then startrekslut shouted "CARROTS" at me so much I had to include it. I hope you enjoy this little piece of insanity.
> 
> Thanks as always to my BFF Icka.

For the first time in years Jonathan Archer had managed to not only have a night out without any emergency interruptions, he’d managed to keep his wife by his side the whole time. Even though it had been two years since they’d both taken planetside jobs after Erika’s pregnancy they’d spent more time with their little girl, rarely leaving her alone for a night, and when they had it had always been for work. Tonight both the _Constellation_ and the _Curie_ were in dock, meaning that both his and Erika’s best friend’s had been home for the night. A meal out and a chance to catch up was too good to pass up.

The gossip had been almost too good to believe, and for Jon it had brought about a nostalgia about space travel he hadn’t expected, after everything that had happened over the years he hadn’t wanted to try pushing another space mission, so had accepted a promotion and moved to Earth happily. Erika had taken a job promotion, if not a rank promotion, and was enjoying her job now. He wondered if she was as nostalgic as he was.

However, some of the sillier stories soon reminded him of the contact with the Kretassans and his tree dance. Erika still begged him to let her see the pictures, so far he had managed to keep them a secret. Trip having to do a performance with carrots had convinced him that he was possibly safer on Earth, that was before Veronica’s story about a species who demanded that aliens and their senior politicians each drink a vial of poison. If they lived they were worthy of trade talks and possibly and alliance.

It was over far too soon from Jon’s mind, not only because the stories reminded him of a different time, but because it was time spent too short with their friends. Veronica went back to her ship, Trip went home to Hoshi and his family, while Jon had tugged Erika away from the shuttles and started a leisurely walk home. Mostly so he got his wife alone a little while before he had to share her with the little one again. “That was a fun night. We should go out more often.” He commented, the first thing either of them had said anything since they’d left the restaurant.

Erika gave him a serious look then shook her head with a small smile. “We don’t have the chance really, Jon. It’s not often than Kate will be able to babysit.” That was a valid point, their neighbours’ 15 year old was all too happy to babysit when she was needed, but neither of them wanted to leave her in charge of Serena too often. The toddler was a terror, and both he and Erika were well aware of the havoc she could cause.

“I know, but still.” He shrugged a little and tugged her closer. Letting go of her hand to wrap his arm around her shoulders, smiling at her as her arm snaked around his back. He wondered if this was all the reason he’d had for walking home quietly, this was basically the only alone time they would get for now. “I miss going out, sharing gossip with our friends.”

“We’re never letting Trip live that First Contact story down, right?” Erika asked after a few seconds of silence. He couldn’t help but let out a bark of laughter that disturbed a cat that had clearly been crouching at the bottom of a nearby tree. It shot off in one direction and lead to them both laughing harder than they had been before.

He just shook his head and tried to wait until their giggles had both trailed off. It took longer than he’d expected, but he didn’t mind much. He loved listening to Erika’s laugh. When they had both managed to control themselves he thought on the question again and smiled. “Never. We’re going to have to teach Serena to shout ‘Carrots’ at him whenever she sees him.” That was his plan anyway. There was one advantage to being a parent, using your child for your own nefarious purposes.

Erika it seemed had other ideas, even while she chuckled along with him, she shook her head and squeezed his side exactly where he was ticklish. “She’s 18-months old Jon, let her find her own ways to embarrass him.” She scolded, and he made a big show of pouting like a child himself. It didn’t last long, and soon he had his arm back around her shoulders. Happy as ever about getting the chance to tease her like this. “What about Veronica and the _Constellation_. Someone needs to teach her that comnet fads never last.” Veronica and her crew had partaken in a viral competition of doing as much walking on your hands as you could. Theirs had gone through the majority of the new Federation like wildfire, but Erika knew in a few weeks it would be forgotten about.

“This one might last longer because of her. An entire Starfleet crew doing it? I’d watch it.” He commented, absolutely adamant he wasn’t going to tell Erika he’d already seen it, and had ended up laughing at it a few times. He had found it even funnier when he’d seen Travis, who was the senior pilot there joining in.

Erika, however, just looked at him shiftily and that made him think that maybe he wasn’t as sneaky as he thought. He tried to look innocent, but a second later all his attempts were vanquished. “You have, several times.”

“How’d you know?” He had to know, if he knew he’d be able to remember how to change it all. He started looking for his keycard, knowing they were about to turn onto their street, and Erika hadn’t brought a bag out with her.

As he searched she just looked at him, and she could feel his judgemental eyes on his back as she did. “You forget to clear your search history. By the way, searching for yourself is vain and pathetic.” That last made him laugh, he had only done that to see if anyone had complained about Serena’s behaviour on the last day at the park. His name was more likely to come up in the news reports than hers.

As they reached the door and he slid the card into the slot he decided one more tease, something she could choose to address when they were alone again. “Shush you.”

“Why should I?” She asked straight away, and he realised that he was going to have to start being cleverer with it. The problem was that she was cleverer than him, so he was certain that any of his plans she would be able to see through. Considering the time and how dark their apartment was, he presumed that Serena was asleep, so he would use that to his advantage.

“Because if you don’t you’ll wake the baby.” He mumbled quietly, smiling at Kate as they stepped down into the sitting room and watched Erika hang both their jackets up then come back over to him, for some reason he felt that them getting home wasn’t going to stop the conversation they’d been having.

Erika clicked her tongue against the top of mouth and shook her head. “She sleeps through your snoring, she won’t be woken up by me talking.” She stepped onto her tiptoes and grinned, obviously knowing the effect this was having on him. “You pay Kate, I’m going getting out of this dress.” With that she was gone, off to the back of the apartment. He settled up with Kate, and assured her that they would be calling her whenever they needed someone to mind Serena. It helped that the toddler adored Kate, making them leaving a lot easier. Once he’d made sure she’d gotten into her house safely he started back toward the bedroom, just in time to see Erika pulling her blues on and setting out a hair brush.

He stepped into the bedroom with a grin and started unbuttoning his own shirt, thinking about something that had been bothering him since they’d gotten to the restaurant. “You know, one day we need to set Veronica up with that cousin of yours.” He said, thinking about the one he’d met the last time they’d visited Erika’s family. They’d both commented that she’d be a good match for Veronica, but it had been a while since they’d visited. More than a year.

“Which one?” Erika asked, clearly not recalling the conversation whatsoever. That wasn’t all that surprising, it had been a long time ago, and Jon was having trouble pulling the right information out of his mind. It was hard to think back all that time and get it right.

The only fact he could think of was that she had been complaining about her ex girlfriend breaking up with her the week before the reunion. He’d spent ten minutes winding a very tiny Serena and listening to her complain about it. “The lesbian one, which one do you think?”

“I have 64 cousins, Jonathan. Believe it or not ‘the lesbian one’ doesn’t narrow it down much and you’re an asshole for saying that to begin with.” Erika shot that over her shoulder while brushing her hair, and Jon wondered how she could even multitask like that, but that wasn’t the point. He needed to think harder.

He got up to find his own pyjama bottoms, desperately trying to pull any information from the very back of his mind. He remembered they’d spoken about a friend he’d had in elementary school who’d had the same name. The girl he’d known was now a big politician. Claudia Slaight. That was her name. Claudia. “Fine. Claudia. I think?”

“We probably shouldn’t, ever thought Veronica doesn’t want a girlfriend right now?” Erika made a point, and while Jon didn’t really want to concede the point he somewhat had to. Unless Veronica asked he should probably stay well away from meddling, even though he was desperate to try.

He knew he shouldn’t though, and his urge to meddle was just coming from the nostalgia of when he used to meddle in her love life all the time. “You’re probably right.” He tried to focus on something else, including the other bit of good news from the night. “Trip should be back from patrols in a couple of weeks. We should go out again then.”

“I leave for Vulcan next week.” That was right. Erika was presenting at a conference for a few days, just like the ones they’d had to attend during the war. Those conferences had been more for the public and less for the actual officers. This one was the other way round, the public were not allowed, it was strictly strategic, he’d been offered a place, but after a long discussion he’d decided to stay on Earth. He frowned, but Erika picked up his chin and smiled. “Maybe you two should have a boys night. No corrupting our daughter already though.” There was a hint of malice in those words, but he chose to ignore.

He smirked and pulled her against him, having missed this for the last few minutes. He just wanted to hold onto her. “I will try to stick to that condition.” He teased, watching her roll her eyes and pretend to believe him was the best thing.

“You better, otherwise this could end very badly for you. Now, come to bed.” She grinned at him and he couldn’t help but return it. Nights out had always ended this way, and it was a nice thing to happen. He followed her and shook his head at her giggles. There was something about her threats that just made him feel more at home. This was how it was for him now, and he couldn’t be happier. Especially since he hadn’t done a carrot dance for First Contact Day, Trip was going to hate them all for a while, because he was going to have to tell Malcolm and Travis too. All in all it had been a good night, and now he got to finish it the perfect way. Curled up with his wife.


End file.
